Brand Museum

BBC Learning EnglishLondon LifeBrand MuseumYvonne: Now whatever we think of advertising² and brandingor about the effect that ithas on shoppers, we’ve got to admit that it’s clever -and it’s big business! But why does it work? You’relistening to bbclearningenglish.com – I’m Yvonne Archer³.
　　Welcome to London Life!
　　Why are we convinced that we’ll look and feel like thehappy model in the advert¹ if we buy that new shampoo? Andlook, the bottle’s so pretty! Of course, we know what theadvertisers are doing – but we still reach for ourwallets. Why?
　　We left London’s busy shoppers for The Museum of Brands,Packaging and Advertising to find some answers. The museum’s director, Robert Opie, has been collecting brands andpackaging for the last 30 years so he was happy to tell ushow it all began. As you listen, try to catch thethree types of products that Robert mentions; they weresent to the ‘grocers’, the individual shop keepers, ‘inbulk’. What does Robert mean by ‘in bulk’?
　　Robert Opie, Director, Museum of Brands, Packaging andAdvertisingWell if you go back to say the middle of the 19th century,virtually all the products being produced at that time weresent to the grocer in bulk. And he would make up andblend his own specific teas or he would dole⁴ out the driedfruits or the sugar or whatever it was. And it would beprepared in front of you and you could see what the productwas.
　　Yvonne: Up until around 1850, the middle of the 19thcentury, the products that grocers sold were sent to them‘in bulk’. Did you work out what that means?
　　Yes,things like tea, dried fruit and sugar - the three productswe were listening out for - were sent to them in largeamounts or quantities, often in large sacks. So shopperscould see what they were getting when they paid for a poundinweight of tea, for example.
　　Now as we know, packaging is bad for our environment andmakes shopping more expensive. So can’t we go back to ourold ways and why the big change?
　　Robert Opie, Director, Museum of Brands, Packaging andAdvertisingCome the packaging revolution, that all disappeared and whywas that? Well, people were getting a bit wary⁵ aboutwhat the grocer was putting into his tea and so on. Hewas making up weights of that pound that you ordered withlittle bits of spurious… hmm, perhaps the sawdust from thefloor even!
　　Yvonne: Yuck – sawdust?! That’s certainly‘spurious’ - shavings of wood instead of pure tea?! Itwas the dishonest grocer who brought on the packagingrevolution.  Of course, the people who made theproducts – the‘manufacturers’- soon realised that packaging could meannew publicity⁶ opportunities, as Robert puts it ‘a wholenew publicity angle’. And customers got a few extras too!
　　Listen out for two examples – the soap package that Roberttalks about is from the 1880s…Robert Opie, Director, Museum of Brands, Packaging andAdvertisingOnce the manufacturer had control over his product, hecould put recipes on, he could say this is the same qualityas the time before. So the whole thing took on a wholenew meaning and a whole new publicity angle…I’m looking here at a Sunlight Soap package – a brandthat went right around the world. And the great way thatthey attracted customers to this was they offered a ?1,000reward if you could find anything wrong with the product.
　　I mean that was a huge enticement⁷.
　　Yvonne: OK, free recipes are quite useful but the soapproduct wins hands down for me!
　　No wonder it was so ‘enticing’ – tempting⁸ peopleworldwide. Imagine how many people kept on buyingpackages of that soap to try to find a bar that wasn’tperfect! After all, a thousand pounds in the 1880swould have been a huge amount of money and it still istoday.
　　Of course, branding and packaging is still about sellingproducts but it’s also about another sales message thatwill keep on changing…Robert Opie, Director, Museum of Brands, Packaging andAdvertisingIf you buy my brand, you become a hip⁹ kinda, cool kindaperson. That’s the kind of person you want to be. Andof course, that’ll continually change as our perceptionand our ideals change as society changes.
　　Yvonne: Can buying the latest product really make peopleand even children feel better about themselves? And is itOK to try to make us believe that? Why not talk about it inEnglish before our next London Life? And visit us atbbclearningenglish.com for some of the words you could makeuse of.

1 advert   

vi.注意，留意，言及；n.广告

参考例句：

• The advert featured a dolphin swimming around a goldfish bowl.该广告的內容为一条在金鱼缸里游动的海豚。
• Please advert to the contents below.I believe you won't be disappointed.敬请留意后面的内容。相信您一定不会失望的。

2 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

3 archer   

n.射手，弓箭手

参考例句：

• The archer strung his bow and aimed an arrow at the target.弓箭手拉紧弓弦将箭瞄准靶子。
• The archer's shot was a perfect bull's-eye.射手的那一箭正中靶心。

4 dole   

n.救济，（失业）救济金；vt.（out）发放，发给

参考例句：

• It's not easy living on the dole.靠领取失业救济金生活并不容易。
• Many families are living on the dole since the strike.罢工以来，许多家庭靠失业救济金度日。

5 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

6 publicity   

n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告

参考例句：

• The singer star's marriage got a lot of publicity.这位歌星的婚事引起了公众的关注。
• He dismissed the event as just a publicity gimmick.他不理会这件事，只当它是一种宣传手法。

7 enticement   

n.诱骗，诱人

参考例句：

• He fell victim to her enticement. 他被她的魅力征服了。
• He ought to curb his excessive internal desires and resist unreasonable enticement. 控制过度内欲、抵制不当外惑。

8 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

9 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。